Welcome

Unreal Engine Funjam is a 10 day long game jam where people can get together, have fun, and make something cool in Unreal! A required limitation is announced as soon as the jam starts to spice things up. Remember, limitation breeds creativity.

Limitation: "Pure chaos"

The limitation is a special condition that your game must follow, but is open to interpretation. If you are unsure if your idea doesn't fit the limitation, just remember that everyone will interpret it differently. The limitation will be chosen randomly from suggestions by other participants in the Discord.

[The limitation is: "Pure chaos"]

Rating

At the end of the Jam, there will be a rating period that lasts 7 days. Your game will be rated on:

Fun - How much did you enjoy your time with the game?

Appeal - How was the game feel? Did the graphics and sound "pop"?

Replayability - Did you find yourself coming back for more?

Originality - How different was this game from other games you've played before?

Use of Limitation - How well did the game incorporate the given limitation?

FAQ

Q: Does it have to be in Unreal?
A: Yes, that way we can build up a critical mass of Unreal talent for everyone to find a team, and submissions won't get crowded out by Unity WebGL builds.

Q: Is Unreal too complex to have enough time to make a game?
A: We made the jam 10 days so that you have enough time to build something in Unreal, but not so long that it drags on either.

Q: Is there a min or max team size?
A: No :)

Q: Does my submission have to be made during the jam?
A: Yes please don't submit games you already made for other jams.

Q: Is this an official Epic game jam?
A: No it's completely unofficial and not sponsored by Epic.

Q: What are some common problems we can avoid?
A: Don't wait to the last minute to package your game for install, because you might run into issues! Create an Itch page part way through the jam and have a back-up build submitted even if it isn't done, this way you get familiar with the Itch upload process. You can always upload a new version later before the jam ends. Also if you integrate with online services like EOS, plan ahead for any unexpected verification delays. If any teammates will be using Unreal, get them hooked up to Git and the game running locally sooner than later because they could run into issues finding the space to install or setting up build deps like Visual Studio so better to get that out of the way early. If you're integrating Fmod or Wwise don't underestimate how much time it can take to install, set up with Git (especially Wwise). And careful about waiting to the last minute to do UI, it can eat up more time thank you think!

Q: How do we handle version control and collaboration?
A: One option is Git + LFS. GitHub is kind of restrictive for file size, GitLab gives you a bit more space, and Azure DevOps has generous size limit for LFS files, but it's $6/user/month (pro-rated) past the first 5 free users. Note that you have to give users "Basic" access level or they won't see the repo, since they default to the "Stakeholder" access level which doesn't count toward the user limit, but also doesn't have repo access. You can change user access levels from this page (replace myusernamehere with your Azure DevOps username) by clicking the three dots next to their name and picking "Change access level".

UE5 has an option called "One File Per Actor" that doesn't dirty a map file when someone changes an actor inside it, so can significantly reduce merge conflicts. It's enabled by default when using World Partition. Also consider splitting scenes and levels into different folders so people don't bump heads when editing assets, and communicate to avoid conflicts! You can also use sublevels. So you'll have a persistent level, under that an env level, lighting, gameplay, etc. Then people can make changes to different sub levels without having to check out the main level. Here's a good video on sublevel workflows:

LFS also has support for file locking, so you can mark .uasset files as lockable in .gitattributes, then people can lock one before working on it to avoid merge conflicts. Here's a good .gitignore to avoid bloat in the repo. If you get a HTTP 413 error while uploading large files for example above 128MB to Azure Devops, use this command and try again: git config --local http.version HTTP/1.1

There's also Perforce which has a 5 free user limit, and you usually have to set it up on a VPS like a Digital Ocean droplet because the cloud versions are quite expensive.

Q: I got added to an Azure DevOps project, but I see a 401 "Uh-oh, you do not have access"
A: Try opening the page in an incognito or private browser tab. We've seen issues with people already logged in getting this error.

Q: How do I upload my game to Itch?
A: First you have to package the game. Then you can upload it to your Itch game page using their Butler command-line tool OR gui-butler (GUI version). Basically you install it (I use the Itch.io app to install), right click it in the Itch.io app and click "Open folder in explorer", copy and paste the folder it's in and add that to your PATH so you can run it from the command line. Then fire up a Powershell terminal (restart if you have one open already so PATH updates) and run `butler login` to log in. Then in a Powershell terminal, `cd` into the folder where your packaged game is located and run `butler push` (following these instructions) with a command that will look something like this ` butler push C:\Users\scriptorious\Downloads\MyGamePackage\WindowsNoEditor.zip scriptorious/funjam1:windows`

Q: I'm using GitHub Desktop with Azure DevOps and getting an "Authentication failed" alert asking for Username/Password when I try to download the repo.
A: You have to generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) and use that to log in. Follow the instructions here to get access.

Q: I'm not good with 3D, can I still build something in Unreal?
A: Unreal supports 2D and 2.5D with its Paper2D plugin. Check out this excellent tutorial from Cobra Code to get started! His channel has a lot of other resources about 2D in Unreal, too.

Community

We've got a Discord server to help you find teammates for the jam, submit ideas for the limitations, get tech help during the jam, or show off your game!

(click the button above to join)